The Passover And Good Friday

Passover and Good Friday.

Exodus 12: 1-51u

We take so much for granted. We walk outside and experience the world around us, often without any thought of its majesty and grandeur. We see the night sky, the trees, the ocean, the mountains, any of which is immense enough to overwhelm us as we try to consider its beauty and magnitude. In our defense, there has never been a time when those things did not exist. So, it would be easy for us to take them for granted. However, there was a time they did not exist. In fact, there was a time when nothing existed at all - nothing, that is, except the God that made all we see and experience. And, it is His existence and activity that should cause us to marvel to an even greater degree.

Passover is a Jewish festival celebrating the exodus from Egypt and the Israelites’ freedom from slavery to the Egyptians. The Feast of Passover, along with the Feast of Unleavened Bread, was the first of the festivals to be commanded by God for Israel to observe (see Exodus 12).

Verse 2 – This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you.

This verse shows us how important this event is for Israel. It marks their turning point. Before this day, they were a tribe of sojourners. Then they were immigrants. Then they were slaves. Now they are going to be a nation. They are going to get their own calendar. It will mark their independence. It will mark their birth as a nation. Like our calendar is marked in two parts, B.C. and A.D , their history was marked in two parts. Before the Passover. And after the Passover. Their faith in God’s promise and obedience to His command would result in their deliverance and freedom.

And just as the Passover marked their birth as a nation so when we accept Christ we are born again. Our lives can also be divided into two parts. The first part is marked by slavery to sin, bondage to this world. Then Christ delivers us. He sets us free. He gives us a future. He makes us be born again. And everything changes, the old has passed away and the new has come. Our spiritual journey with God begins. Our "born again" day is our spiritual birthday, day one of a new calendar.

The night of the first Passover was the night of the tenth plague. On that fateful night, God told the Israelites to sacrifice a spotless lamb and mark their doorposts and lintels with its blood (Exodus 12:21–22). Then, when the Lord passed through the nation, He would “pass over” the households that showed the blood (verse 23). In a very real way, the blood of the lamb saved the Israelites from death, as it kept the destroyer from entering their homes. The Israelites were saved from the plague, and their firstborn children stayed alive. From then on, every firstborn son of the Israelites belonged to the Lord and had to be redeemed with a sacrifice (Exodus 13:1–2, 12; cf. Luke 2:22–24).

One of the things that made this judgment so powerful was the people of Egypt thought Pharaoh was a god. Pharaoh considered himself a divine ruler who held life and death in his hands. All the plagues that hit Egypt were blows to the power of the Egyptian gods. And the death of the first born was the greatest blow to their religious system. This would bring the reality of death and judgment to every home in Egypt, from Pharaoh's household to the most humble home. No one was exempt.

The LORD God is holy and He must punish sin. There are no exceptions.

Each Hebrew family was responsible for selecting a lamb (Exodus 12:3–5).

Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, "On the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for themselves, according to their fathers' households, a lamb for each household. Now if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the number of persons in them; according to what each man should eat, you are to divide the lamb."

Every person/household had to have their own lamb – Every person ate of it. In like manner, each person must repent of their own sins and trust Jesus personally.

No bones can be broken (Exodus 12:46 , John 19:31-36)

The meat of the lamb had to be eaten (12:8–11).

Moses gave instruction to the people on how to prepare for their journey in Exodus 12:8–11.

They shall eat the flesh that same night, roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled at all with water, but rather roasted with fire, both its head and its legs along with its entrails. And you shall not leave any of it over until morning, but whatever is left of it until morning, you shall burn with fire. Now you shall eat it in this manner: with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste—it is the Lord's Passover. " Why roasted and not boiled? Because you have to cut the meat into smaller blocks and break the bones to fit the pot. By doing so the command "do not break the bones" could not be obeyed. Roasting does not break any bones.